Ragnar Las Vegas

Running addles your brain. That's the only conclusion I can come up with for why people would pay to run a ridiculous number of miles, "sleep" in a van, really be going on no sleep at all and then call it fun, but I have now signed up for this insanity twice. Four times if you count Ragnar trail, which was marginally better since we had a tent to sleep in, but still.

This time it was Las Vegas. My friend Leslie had a few people drop from the team she was on and asked if I wanted to go. The registration fee was already paid so I'd just be responsible for food and gas. That makes me less crazy right? I didn't have to pay extravagant amounts of money to run like a crazy person? At any rate we had a great time.

We got down to Vegas Thursday night and my cousin Rick came and picked me up for dinner. It was lucky I had called him the day before for my November grateful challenge, since I forgot he was living in Vegas. It was nice to chat with him and he won the prize for best cousin when he brought be sunscreen before my first leg and then stayed the whole time, moving along the route to cheer me on.

Friday morning we got up at 3:30 to get ready and head out. Sadly I hadn't really slept. I guess I was sleeping, but it wasn't a sound sleep and I didn't feel rested at all. I was runner 6, so it was kind of warm by the time it was my turn to run. I thought it was going to be awful, but it turned out to be not so bad.

We went back to the house to shower and nap, but again I was "sleeping" but didn't feel rested when I got up. We headed out for our second legs and I must say this was the most entertaining part of the trip for me. Two of my teammates were high school boys. They were so funny as we waited at the exchange for leg 2. I just laid on my seat in the van and listened to them sing their hearts out. Super Tramp of all things. It was very entertaining. My night run was my longest one. It was decent. I like running at night, but it was mostly in residential areas with lots of street lights so I couldn't even see the moonlight for most of it. Lame. My phone said I ran an 8 minute mile. Just shows that the GPS tracking on your phone isn't always very accurate. :) After leg 2 we headed to a hotel. I slept like a rock there, but sadly it was short lived as we had to get up 2.5 hours later to go run. I was feeling pretty awful at that point and I'm pretty sure I would have died if we hadn't had the van that I could sleep in for a couple more hours.

This is what we looked like a lot between runs and in the end. Completely wasted, sore and smelly. After my last run we headed back to the house and I showered super fast so I could go to lunch with my friend Casey. I don't think I have seen him since he moved in June so it was fun to catch up with him. We even did a little shopping which turned out to be very entertaining as well.

We decided to skip the finish line since we had to drive back to Provo. It was a long drive and I was very tired, but when we hit the rumble strips a couple times, I decided I better stay awake and help the driver stay awake. Better tired and alive than dead. :)

It was a much better overall experience than Ragnar Colorado. Having a van makes a huge difference. I was nervous about having two 17 year-olds on my team, but they turned out to be one of the highlights of the team. For only knowing one person on my team going into it, I was pleasantly surprised and would definitely do another Ragnar, provided I don't have to pay the entry fee and we have a van.

It's up to us to be the change

I love Josh Groban. I have for a long time. On my mission, my good friend Danizza, who is also a big Josh fan, sent me his Christmas album. Probably the best thing I was sent on my mission. I love this song Thankful. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite  holidays. I love that it's in the fall which is my favorite, that it focuses on being grateful for what you have, on giving to others, on relationships and on delicious food.

While I'm grateful for the time to focus on being grateful and take stock of all I have been given, I am not grateful for the billions of posts on facebook about it. I don't know why it drives me so crazy,  but it does. Last night as I was thinking about how my favorite month of October is over and that November starts Saturday and so do the grateful posts, I decided it would be good for me to take a break from facebook and focus on being grateful for the REAL FACE TO FACE relationships I have in my life. I have made the goal to call (or visit) one person every day and just chat with them for a little bit. Let them know I love them and I'm grateful for that relationship.

There really is so much to be thankful for. One of the things I am most grateful for and consistently thank God for are the relationships I have, the amazing people He has put into my life to help me through, inspire me, love me and help me remember who I really am. So if you get a call from me, I'm just calling to say hey, I love you. If you don't have time to chat, that's fine. I'll leave you a voicemail. If you don't get a call from me, know that I still love you!

Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves
There's so much sorrow
It's way too late to say
I'll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth
It's so long overdue

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And every day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences
There is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each other's light

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more

There's so much to be thankful for

It gets better

I've had a horrible time running for the last 6 months. I've never been a fast runner by any means, but in April I was running sub 10 minute miles. That's really good for me. Then I went on the Whole30 diet with my friend for the month of May and running was murder. Seriously I dreaded it every time it was a running day. I think the only reason I actually forced myself to go was because of my New Year's resolution to run 600 miles. I was slower than cold tar, I was tired the whole time and tired for the rest of the day. I thought it would get better when I went back to my regular diet. Nope. It was still miserable. I was slightly less tired, but still just as slow. And it started to make me mad. Really mad. Why on earth was I running when I wasn't improving? It wasn't fun. It was horrible. I'd be running and thinking, why am I doing this? What is the point? You are an idiot. Maybe I should have worked on more positive thinking, but even when I went out feeling good and had a positive attitude, I'd come back to the same slow times.
But I just stuck to it. Through early morning runs to avoid the heat. Early bedtimes, altered diet, more protein, more carbs, eat before, eat after and slowly. Oh so slowly, my times started coming back down and then in the last two weeks they've come down a lot! Monday I went running and it was awesome!! It was a longer-ish run and I kept up a good pace and when I got home I felt fantastic! I could have gone out and run some more. I was so happy and had lots of energy and it was great!!
I think so many times in life it's easy to get bogged down because we don't see any progress. All we see are the crappy trials and the failed attempts and the 8 steps back we just took, but if we just stick with it, keep trying, it will get better. Who knows how long it will take,  but it gets better.

Leaky Eye Syndrome

I think I must have something. My eyes just keep leaking this week. I swear there is nothing wrong, but I just feel so . . . sad? blah? unsettled? confused? frustrated? Okay, I guess maybe there is something wrong, I just can't quite pin it all down and figure out a solution. And so my eyes continue to leak. Randomly, at work in the middle of the day. Less leaky and more waterfall like at night in my bedroom. Why can't life be just a little bit easier to figure out?

Conference Weekend, can it get any better?

I submit that it cannot, unless maybe we had another day of it.

Seriously this Conference weekend is one of the best I can think of. I was SO excited for it. I have actually been consciously preparing for it for a couple of weeks. Usually I'm more of a "oh yeah, conference is tomorrow, better think of some questions", scribble something down and be on my way. This time around I've really had some things weighing on my mind and was looking forward to some insight and guidance from God's chosen servants. I was not disappointed.

Conference weekend started out with the BYU game. My roommate scored some free tickets, so we decided to ask a couple of guys from the ward and go to the game. Our ward is doing a Oktoberdatefest with a ward goal of 300 dates. We were just doing our part. ;) Sadly BYU lost, but we still had a good time.

My sister came down for a mission reunion, so it was fun to spend conference with her. She was a bit on the tired side. This was her during the "rest hymn".

I think all of the speakers were told the same thing. Write a message for Cathy. They all listened to this assignment really well. Seriously though. Especially Saturday Morning and Sunday Afternoon sessions. The talks were just so tailored for me.

Saturday afternoon Julie and I headed up to Salt Lake. Julie had a dinner with some mission people and I had my annual October Conference ice cream date with one of my best friends Dana. We decided to forgo the ice cream and get dinner instead since I was STARVING.  We always have such a great time together and I just love getting to catch up with her. I'm so grateful for her friendship and for her willingness to put in the effort to stay friends. She moved away in the 8th grade, long before facebook, cell phones, and at the beginning of the email days. It's definitely taken some effort, but look at us now.

Still as ridiculous as ever, but I wouldn't change that.

I tried to get some homework done when I got home from dinner with Dana, but my body just wasn't going to have it and I fell asleep at 9:15. Apparently conference was just a bit too much for me.

Sunday morning we were back on the couches with pens ready. It was a beautiful day with more beautiful messages. I think Sunday afternoon session was my favorite and I am just so thankful for a Heavenly Father who is mindful of me and what I need. I really just can't even wait to have a printed copy of all the talks to mark up and study out. In the meantime I'll just listen to them again. And again.

After conference Brenda and I decided a drive up the canyon to see the fall colors was in order. It was a beautiful drive although it did make me a little sick on the twisty road.

God is good. Really, really good.

A little road trippin'

My friend Kari's birthday was on Sunday and she invited me to go on a road trip with her down to St. George in celebration. She had never been to Zion National Park and wanted to check it off her list. So Friday afternoon we packed up and headed out. We had a nice drive down talking about whatever we felt like. About an hour before we arrived I got really excited to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and we decided we should sing the rest of the way. Not sing songs, but sing our conversation. It was very entertaining.
We stayed with our friend Blaire at her family's house in St. George. We dropped off our stuff and then piled in the car to head to Tuacahn. Blaire's brother in law works there and scored us some free tickets. Since Kari's third person she invited couldn't come at the last minute we had an extra ticket to the play so we took Blaire's 4 year old niece Anya with us. She was shy for about 37 seconds and then proceeded to tell me everything about everything since I was sitting in the back with her. By the time we got to Tuacahn we were the best of friends.

The play was fantastic!! I had heard the soundtrack to the play before on the way home from my mission in Spain. It makes for a very long flight when the person next to you is asleep, you can't play the games on the touch screen in front of you because they make you sick and you can't watch the movie; A. because you're a missionary and B. because it will make you sick just like the game did. That leaves listening to music provided by the airline, so what else is a poor missionary to do but listen to Disney. I loved the added songs and was excited to see how they played out. I was not disappointed. It. Was. FABULOUS. I really just loved it so much.

The next morning Blaire and I snuck out to the grocery store to get some flowers and chocolate for Kari's birthday while she was still sleeping. When we got back we headed into town for some breakfast at The Bear Paw. I decided to just go with the pancakes. Kind of boring. In my head I was thinking IHOP so I ordered the large stack because I was feeling very hungry. Holy cow! The pancakes were bigger than my face! I barely made it through 2 and gave the last one to Blaire since her French toast was so little.
Then we were off to Zion. I've been there a few times, but I forget how HUGE those rocks are. It's amazing to me the talents of God. I know that sounds a bit ridiculous, but seriously! What an artist! The colors and just the size of those rocks is so amazing.

Kari wanted to hike the narrows so we got on the bus and headed in. It was a pretty warm day, but once we got down to the water it was the perfect temperature. Being down in that canyon provided shade and the water was pretty cold. It worked out perfectly.

After the narrows we headed to the emerald pools. It had a beautiful view that has provided a nice new lock screen for my phone.

Saturday night we went to Anasazi, an interesting steak house in St. George. They brought you your meat on a hot stone and you cooked it yourself. It was very different, but fun.
Sunday morning we went to a local ward and it happened to be the primary program. It was very entertaining watching those little kids say their parts and sing the songs.
We finished up the trip with a stop at Blaire's house for lunch. Sloppy Joes, my favorite! And then headed out to Snow Canyon. It was SUPER hot so we only got out for one hike to Jenny's canyon which was only half a mile round trip.
It was a really fun weekend with Kari and Blaire and I'm glad I got to go.

Utah temples

It's on my bucket list to go to all the temples in Utah and Idaho and do an ordinance of some kind.

Logan
Brigham City
Ogden
Bountiful
Salt Lake 
Jordan River
Draper
Oquirrh Mountain
Timponogos
Provo
Provo City Center- construction
Vernal
Payson- construction
Cedar City- construction
Monticello
St. George


Rexburg
Idaho Falls
Twin Falls
Boise- been to two sealings, but I've never actually done an ordinance
Meridian - construction

I'd say I'm doing pretty good.